Last Wednesday I was invited to visit ‘Bryant Priest Newman Architects‘, located at 3 Mary Street in the Jewellery Quarter. Sleek and striking, the building has played host to a series of Birmingham based artists including; Ed Wakefield, Jane Tudge, VOID Group Show, Stuart Layton, Sam Brookes and will soon be expecting Karen McLean. These artists were all selected to take part in a program set up by ‘Three’ , generously funded by the Arts Council England, this flourishing 9 month project has provided a succession of wonderful exhibitions.

Sam Brookes is the fifth artist to take part in this exciting program and has been making use of Three’s studio space having presented his exhibition, ‘The Soft Machine’ on the 24^th of April, which will be running until the 9^th of May. Having read about his intricate illustrations I was excited to see the complex figures up close. Peering around the corner of Caroline Street, BPN Architects’ large glass window glistened at me to come over and with the reference to Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’ already ringing in my mind I started wondering through ‘The Soft Machine’, looking forward to meeting and interviewing Sam Brookes.

JD – “How do you feel about the way you’ve exhibited your illustrations and that they are without a written narrative?”

SB – “I prefer it. I like the way that there is no narrative, but people can kind of build a narrative as they see it. Whatever I might have been thinking about at that time becomes totally different once it’s out of my control. It’s not in control of anything and the work is just at the whim of everyone else. Everyone has their own thing that they might see, think about or even just be interested in some part of it. It all might be similar to me or different, but I think that’s what is interesting really.

I struggled doing images with words. I found it difficult and in some ways it felt a bit stifling but I think it was probably a bit of anxiety whilst at Uni, working alongside deadlines, but it was good to do because it allowed me to develop technical skills and practice them a lot. Spending time in the library was also good because I got to read a lot of different books and I found a lot of influences there.”

JD – “So there’s a reading process behind it that is still important to you?”

SB -“Yeah, I don’t always read a whole book – I’ll read say bits and then that’ll work its way into the work. So with William Burroughs; with his bugs, centipedes and insects – things like that there is the imagery that comes up anyway. I don’t understand him too much because he’s very complex but you have to go with it, with ‘The Cut Up’ writings.” (The Cut Up trilogy consists of; ‘Soft Machine’, ‘The Ticket That Exploded’ and ‘The Nova Express’)

“But yeah, it influences it but it doesn’t take a huge control over the work. I don’t read something and really concentrate on a part of it; it just maybe vaguely influences it.”

JD – “When did you first define what you do as illustration?”

SB – “I don’t know if it’s defined as illustration… because I did a degree in it I was taught in that certain way, so I was surrounded by it but I don’t know if they are strictly illustrations – they border it a bit. It’s hard to define. There’s an overlap of all practices; so graphic design, fine art, illustration and photography and then there’s middle grounds where they integrate. Its’ hard to really tell which one is which. The place where I studied was very renowned for children’s books and I just couldn’t do it – which was probably detrimental to me!

I couldn’t do children’s books because every time I tried to draw something, I ended up doing something that looked pretty gross! It was also difficult because there were so many opinions from a lot of people, as well as tutors and it was hard to decipher what to do with it… but I should have really followed my own intuitions because at times you get so anxious about what’s right or wrong you kind of forget that that doesn’t really matter. I didn’t like that part of illustration. With this work there’s no right or wrong way, it’s just what it is.”

JD – “You said that a lot of the illustration that you saw at University was for children’s books. Were there any illustrators or books that opened you up a little or that you liked?”

SB – “When I was at Uni I was really obsessive with detail, I needed to loosen up… but once you become obsessed with something it’s hard to distance yourself. Then in first year, we went to visit a group in ‘Big Orange Studios’. We saw someone called Paul Davis and I really liked his way of working. I also like David Hughes, he has a crude and quite violent style of working. I liked his technique; it was very scratchy. They were caricatures done with pen and ink, very crude but they were also funny. Now really, I like Julie Mehretu. Her way of working is based upon mark making – the variation of marking and the way in which each mark feels. She does these huge abstract paintings. She calls them paintings, they’re kind of drawings and paintings – absolutely massive layered architectural drawings. She creates this chaotic atmosphere with the marks and it’s like the movement within a city or a space – but with marks made with ink and paint. She’s amazing and I really enjoy her work.

I like lots of things that I see or read (such as) films and Polish Surrealist poster art. I’m interested more in now working with the figure and (gestures to the illustrations around us) how some of them are much more final, they look like creatures within themselves – I’m interested in the shapes of the body. Say you draw two overlapping figures, how the lines are crossed form new shapes and the space around the shape of the body is changed by directions. I start thinking about lots of different things at once.”

JD – “But you’re able to record it all?”

(He reaches over to his coat and produces one of his sketchbooks. Here I get a chance to see one of his works in progress. He gestures to more pronounced areas of the drawing whilst explaining how he felt towards the shapes on the page. The drawing appears to portray moving figures, showing a continued use of black ink markings, creating stark contrast and shading against the white of the paper)

SB – “This piece that I’ve been working on is going down this new route and process. So, finding bits that are more pronounced, taking some parts out and then forgetting them – seeing what these different shapes are doing.

Once they overlap like this it’s interesting to see how it obliterates it – the image completely changes after you’ve overlapped it. I want to use velum; it’s a type of tracing paper that you can see through better. You can get marks to overlap but still see through it. I want to find a way to develop a depth within the drawings, without just drawing straight over them.”

JD – “There’s obviously a lot of movement in this piece but at the same time the image is also obviously very static. So you can already see the layers.”

SB – “It’s like gestural drawing. That’s what’s kind of weird isn’t it? It seems like there’s movement but when in actual fact it’s such a static way of working. It’s very methodical and very time consuming.

That does give it a ‘stillness’ but it also looks like there’s a bit of movement. That’s why I need to get these more gestural; quick, impulsive marks within the work. I’d like to make more use of the lines of red, as they affect the way that the eye scans across the work and use masculine/feminine lines too.”

JD – “Once up close to the pictures, you notice all the dots and the detail. Are the dots important to you?”

SB – “It makes me sure that I’ve been working hard. I really need to get away from the dots. They give an interesting quality but they are punitive, they punish you. After a while they aren’t enjoyable. With that one (picture below) I enjoyed the viciousness of breaking the pens, the more uncaring marks. There are parts that I like and others that I don’t. Not the hand so much but I do like the legs or at least what’s left of them. There are parts that work, that are more developed.

JD – “Are there other mediums and materials you’d like to use with future series?”

SB – “I’d like to use Indian ink, different colours of ink like red with black. That’d be nice. I’d like to use more colours but it’s just my fear of using them. I need to break my working patterns down and reassess what I’m doing. Not destroy them – that’s wrong. Bringing in other things to it, other depths to the work could maybe make it more interesting and give it a different movement/look.”

You never need many excuses to see a film at The Electric Cinema. This is the oldest working cinema in the UK, it has the comfiest sofas you’ll ever sit in – and you can text the bar to bring you drinks and popcorn if you fancy paying for the privilege.

On Friday 25th April they will be screening We Are The Freaks, an ode to teen coming-of-age movies, the fall of Margaret Thatcher and mad nights out in 1990s Birmingham. The ensemble cast includes the stars of This is England, Kill List, Skins and Fresh Meat.

The film premiered at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival and received some excellent reviews. Birmingham-born director Justin Edgar has filled it with energetic and irreverent humour. It does contain many piece-to-camera sequences and references to films of similar genres, but manages not to take itself too seriously.

The film will be followed by an open Q&A session with cast and crew. Click HERE for tickets and more information.

The best thing about Eye Candy Festival is that it is all free and will be featuring work by a range of creative favourites such as Jeremyville, Kristian Jones and Miss Led. I am most looking forward to the Vintage Mobile Cinema and hope to attend ‘Sign Painters the movie‘ on Friday evening as well as trying to find one of Kristian Jones 15 limited edition pieces of artwork that he will be leaving around Southside.

The full programme can be found here and the Eye Candy website is continually updated with more news and exciting announcements about the weekend.

With the launch party happening tomorrow I caught up with Michelle Turton, one of the contributors at this years Eye Candy Festival, to find out about her involvement.

Michelle, who most recently featured in ‘1000 Portraits’, is one third of the trio of illustrators who are adorning Unity House with their work this year alongside Vicky Newman who is a freelance contemporary illustrator specialising in drawing, screen printing and generally getting her fingers inky and Louise Brangwin who enjoys using a mixture of traditional printmaking techniques and line drawings alongside digital tools. Their work shares a common theme which they thought would be perfect to adorn and decorate Bromsgrove Street’s Unity House.

Having been a part of last years Eye Candy Festival through her role in the Inkygoodness Sketch event at Le Truc, Michelle knew that when Eye Candy Festival came around again that she would want to be involved.

Eye Candy provides a great opportunity for local creatives to meet up and network as well as showcase their work alongside other industry heavyweights on both a local and national scale. Out of all the commissions available we were hoping for ‘Unity House’. It’s a beautiful building and to adorn it with a series of illustrations we felt would show it a bit of love, care and attention. Having researched the venue we decided to take inspiration from the buildings former usage and have produced a series of panels telling the story of the buildings varied past from the Victorian era through to the 1980’s.

Above is a sneak preview of the work that will feature on Unity House at the weekend.

For Eye Candy Festival updates be sure to follow them on Twitter and don’t forget to check the website out for updates of what is happening when and where!

If you’re not familiar with History West Midlands: it is an independent website providing free access to a variety of programmes and different media focusing on the history of the people of the West Midlands, their ideas, innovation and industry. The site is designed for anyone who wants to know more about the region, and provides resources for students, learners and educators.

www.historywm.com

As Digbeth Is Good posted: Digbeth Residents Association are screening the finale of the TV series in The Spotted Dog on the 17th – where they are putting on a selection of Edible Eastside’s Digbeth Pies. It’s a free event but you need to register for catering purposes. Priority will be given to Digbeth residents if it’s oversubscribed.

• Councillor Martin Mullaney
• Kerry Thomas
• James Yarker
• Simon Wales
• Helga Henry
• Clare Edwards
• Justice Williams MBE

it isn’t just about investing in the creative industries, it’s about creating a home where the creative industries want to be. I think it’s about the environment and the infrastructure, creative industry and entrepreneurship – you can’t contain it, you can only create a place where it can flourish

Here are some links to things out there:

• Today (15 Oct) is the last day for buying cheaper earlybird tickets
• Here’s the Gigbeth schedule, although at the mo there are more bands listed on the Gigbeth MySpace
• For a second year, Jon at B:iNS has braved the Gigbeth MySpace Marathon, checking out each band that’s playing
• From watching the interview below, it seems that although the music part of the festival serves as the shop window, the Gigbeth Conference is a bigger thing than many of us will appreciate
• Incidentally, rather than churning out press releases, the Gigbeth blog is an engaging and lively thing written by a few people (I think – who writes each post is a bit of a mystery)

Last, and certainly not least, our Frankie sat down with Gigbeth’s organiser, Clare Edwards, for a natter about how the festival and conference started, what it’s all about and this year’s most exciting acts:

Interview with Clare Edwards, Gigbeth from Created in Birmingham on Vimeo.

Tomorrow I’ll be offering some tickets for the next resonance events shindig at the Town Hall.  There might be a question from the interview, so take notes.

Coming up from Birmingham Jazz:

• Wednesday 24th September
  Jazz Club with Maylight at The Rainbow, Digbeth (£3)
• Thursday 25th September
  Sara Colman Album Launch at The Glee Club (£8/£6)
• Tuesday 30th September
  James Bashford Quintet at The Jam House (free)
• Friday 3rd October
  resonance events presents The Heritage Orchestra (playing the music of Amon Tobin) the Lizzy Parks Band, DJ Cro plus guests
  The Town Hall at 7.30pm, live music starts at 9pm (£15.00)
• Friday 3rd October
  Rush Hour Blues – Mike Hatton’s MHJQ in the Symphony Hall Foyer (Free)

If you’ve not come across them before, there are other CiB interviews on Vimeo with the likes of Capsule, 7 Inch Cinema and Ditto Music with more to come.

Frankie sat down with Jenny and Lisa to discuss DIY ethics, council funding, the city’s lack of suitable venues and this year’s Supersonic festival.

Capsule Interview from Created in Birmingham on Vimeo.

If you’re going then you might want to check the timetable for each day and see what talks and presentations have been announced.

If you’re not already going there might be a few e-tickets left, so if you want to see why people are flying in from around the world to visit this then get in quick.

When Frankie Met Poet/MC PolarBear… or didn’t! Due to being immensely popular an arranged meeting never materialized and instead the two conversed via email:

Frankie: So firstly, the new show “If I cover my nose you can’t see me” is described as a story about what happens to what we used to want.  So what does that mean and what should audiences expect?

PolarBear: The story is about the idea that what we plan as kids often gets completely lost. Some part of us is always a kid and that somewhere those plans stay with us, it’s just that grown up stuff covers over them.

Audiences can expect a story about a 10 year-old boy and a man of 28 as their lives intertwine and they both make decisions that will completely change their lives.

You’re starting off in London too. When and where will Birmingham audiences get to see the show?

Yeah gonna do a couple nights at Purcell Room, Southbank centre which is exciting with Goonism doing live art work and a music event after. Will be doing some one offs here and there and come to Birmingham REP in October this year, I think around the 17th/18th. Goonism will be there too so be good to show the finished article to brummies.

On your Myspace page you call it ‘The best thing I’ve ever performed’ and praise the team who you worked with, including director Yael Shavit. A lot of people who write and perform their own pieces also choose to direct it. What made you get a separate director involved and how was the experience of working with her?

I honestly believe that you can’t direct yourself. Not properly. Just like you can’t edit yourself. Not properly. It’s important to get someone else’s eyes involved. With Yael (Shavit) it was a matter of me liking her work and her appreciation of a story and realistic characters and trusting that she could get the best out of me.

Working with her has honestly been the best thing ever for my performance. We understand each other and trust each other, which feels like it is the basis for a good creative relationship.

The production also features music by Foy Vance. I’ve always had him down as the acoustic/folk type. How did that collaboration come about?

I met Foy a couple of years ago on a TV thing and we became friends. I like what he does and he likes what I do and we started working together when we got chance and I asked him to create some sounds very early on in the process.

Moving onto Afrobear… is that a musical partnership? Is the recorded music on your myspace page part of Afrobear or is that part of an individual project?

Afrobear is a long-standing relationship between myself and my friend Len who produces under the moniker Afrosaxon. Basically he is my favourite beat maker ever and I get to write rhymes and make tunes with him as AFROBEAR. It’s our version of what hip-hop should be today.

There is, at any one time, maybe one or a couple AFROBEAR tracks on my myspace and these will be credited clearly. Other stuff is work with other producers or just me on my own.

Why have you called the album ‘Not Shit’? Are you expecting backlash!? What can we expect from it?

Not too fussed about backlash to tell you the truth. ‘Not Shit’ is a term we use to describe stuff we like, a lot. It’s a Brummie trait of not being that impressed by much so the norm is ‘shit’ and good stuff is ‘Not Shit’.

You’ve called Brighton your favourite place to perform. Why?

I’ve been lucky enough to perform in lots of places in the last three years and had some great experiences and to date, no terrible ones. Some ones I’ve not particularly enjoyed but none that have gone really badly. With Brighton, I performed at a place called the Komedia and the crowd were the warmest most respectful audience to every single performer. It was pretty inspiring and I’m quite a cynical person really. Amazing.

Good people down there.

Do you think it is important to remain in Birmingham or are you planning to move to London? Is Brum part of your ‘creative process.’

I’m actually based in London now due to my family. My girlfriend works in theatre and her work meant she couldn’t leave London and we had a little boy and being free-lance I could be based anywhere so I went down. I’m up in Brum at least two days a week for workshop work and so it feels like I live in two places, but it’s working. It’s important to me to be from Birmingham.

It will always be home. The people I grew up with here and know now are the inspiration for everything I have written so far.

And finally… after Colin Murray played ‘Jessica’ on his show you must have got a lot more interest. What was the inspiration for ‘Jessica’ and is Jessica real?

Nice one Colin Murray. I mean it’s nice to reach more people’s ears I guess and I didn’t even know it was gonna happen. He’s played it a few times now which is nuts but good exposure.

Jessica is based on reality and was inspired by a few experiences in my life as well as things that haven’t happened yet.

Jessica is very real. But maybe I changed her name.

PolarBear will be appearing at the Garrick Theatre at 10pm on Wed 9 July.  Tickets are only £6.50 – which is an absolute bargain.